I kept my gaze down, burning a hole in the floor. Something told me if I saw a condescending grin on Levi’s face, I’d snap. Understanding of his feelings as I was, I still didn’t like it. Even my affinity seemed to get annoyed, which was new. I hadn’t noticed that before.
“She can’t control that,” Zephyr laughed. “Don’t you wanna hear how she saved the day?”
Levi was quiet for a second, then nodded. “Sure. Tell me.”
Zephyr looked to me, his eyes pleading, seemingly because he could feel the tension in the room. Zephyr had missed Levi just as much as me, of course, but he was a man. Men needed their fathers differently than women. Zephyr had missed out on years’ worth of guidance. He desperately wanted things to go back to normal, but I was starting to think the tension wasn’t entirely my fault.
“She injected him with drugs, he was having an overdose. I was able to find it and remove it before it killed him.” I said quietly.
Levi’s eyebrows rose slowly. And then he shook his head. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she’s a cunt?” Zephyr supplied, “Why else?”
“She finds him disappointing,” I explained quietly. “Until the attack on the academy, he’d only had one affinity.”
“How did he get into the academy then?” Levi asked, his tone suggesting he didn’t believe a word of anything I’d just said.
“His family Chain has money. Lots of it.”
“Hm. Unlike us, I guess.” Levi said, glancing down at his blanket.
Zephyr tilted his head. “What does that mean? We have plenty of money.”
And so did Levi. I’d never met any of my grandparents, but we knew Levi had come from money. He’s the one who’d bought our parents first house. Why was he acting like we were broke now?
“Well, you do now. I’m sure that life insurance came in handy.” Levi sighed. “I could’ve done a lot with it.”
Zephyr and I went silent.
What.
The fuck?
Zephyr looked at me, his expression torn between concern for my reaction, and a plea for me to keep my cool.
I need to go,I said to Zephyr.
“I think Aiden’s awake,” Zephyr said immediately, acting as if we hadn’t spoken. “How about I go get him while you get your room ready?”
I nodded as I stood, ignoring Levi’s scoff.
I opted to take the stairs instead of teleporting away, figuring Levi would have some opinion about that, too.
Levi didn’t even say goodbye. Zephyr’s heavy footsteps behind mine were the only sound as we made our way up the stairs to the main floor.
Chapter 2
Aiden
I groaned,rolling over and grimacing at how my sweaty arms stuck to the vinyl under me.
Wait.Vinyl?
I cracked one eye open, glancing around at my surroundings.
Okay…so I had no idea where I was.
A diner, maybe? My eyes darted around the room, taking in the small wooden tables and a few booths, similar to the one I was lying in. I sat up slowly, my gaze catching on a checkout counter with a large pastry case beside it.
